Musical hallucinationsThe music itself sounds in my head. Familiar? It happens, probably, with everyone, what is there. Cling to some "girl Praskovya", spin-spin and stop. Another thing is when the melody…

In music I am legend, and is an ass

In our time, every second – vocal Affairs expert. We watch “Voice”, “X-Factor”, compilations and master classes on YouTube of the best vocalists in the most different styles of music. We measure the ranges of favorite singers. Someone we blame – “not the one”, and someone give “still!”. This is not Ian Gillan, this is not Axel rose, and where is Whitney Houston?!

It seems that we are well versed in what and how to sing, what is euphonious and what is terrible. We don’t really know a damn thing about it. In our country, what can be done in music, having an idea and demonic performance, perfectly owning a voice apparatus and spitting on the laws of show business, we do not know yet. As it happens in the West – can be traced to the biography of Mike Patton.

He worked in Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantomas, Moonchild, Peeping Tom, Lovage, collaborated with avant-garde jazz guru John Zorn, matkor band The Dillinger Escape Plan, Kaada, Bjork and many others. He rewrote the Italian hits of the 50s and 60s. At concerts in Russia, he demanded the support of Edward Gil (and in every way showed respect for the famous singer), and when he fell ill – the American himself sang in the InterMedia “Tro-lo-lo”.

Heart-rending cries of Mike Patton please us monsters in the movie “I’m a legend” and computer games “The Darkness”, “Left 4 Dead”, “Portal”. His tracks, recorded on children’s synthesizers for 20 bucks, sound in “Adrenaline”; in addition, he created an excellent soundtrack in “1922” (adaptation of Stephen king) and “Place under the pines” (Gosling, Mendes).

Man-orchestra, chameleon, provocateur, brilliant eccentric Mike Patton in his groups recorded more than 20 albums and participated in another 50.

In an interview with Patton, which is hard to give questions and answers, because he is a master of doing and not talking – admits:

“I’m a legend in music and it’s an ass.”

On January 27, the fantastic singer turns 51.

The questions about the beginning, about where the music came from, he answers about the same thing. His father is the coach of the football team, but Patton himself did not achieve much success in the sport. Miracles coordination and stamina he shows on scene. Since childhood, Mike imitated the voices of birds: for some reason his parents put him records with the sounds of the forest.

From here the instrumental attitude to own voice grew and was fixed.

On YouTube you can find old videos where twelve-year-old schoolboy Patton in black leather jackets, speaking at a matinee in the Assembly hall, singing the hits of AC/DC. At school he was gathering his own group that plays escheat carnival mix of metal, funk, country and jazz, and combining different genres in one composition. This group is Mr. Bungle – released three albums (1991, 1996, 1999) and is still considered one of the freakiest bands in music history.

Then in the early careers of young Patton invited into the increasingly famous alternative band Faith No More. “Our former vocalist (Chuck Mosley) always sang the same way, – admitted FNM bassist, – singing like a cow being raped with a shovel.”

Mike is different.

At 21, he was involved in the recording of the commercially successful album FNM “The Real Thing”. The hit “Epic”, which combines heavy metal guitar and rap reading, is considered almost a discovery of nu metal. A group for the first time nominated for a Grammy.

Then 23-year-old Patton records with FNM album “Angel Dust”, extremely diverse in sound and rich in hits. “Midlife Crisis” (perepeleetsa all and Sundry, including Disturbed), “Caffeine”, “Kindergarten”, “Land of Sunshine”. “Angel Dust” already has Patton’s influence on the band, and it’s a completely different sound.

This album is considered “the most influential album of all time” by Kerrang magazine! (2003) – despite the fact that it officially sold three million copies worldwide. Compare with the mastodons of the industry.

With each subsequent album the band increasingly experimenting with sounds (difficult albums to find at least two similar songs), sales are down, guitarists are changed one after the other… Friction in the team lead to the disintegration of the group in 1997. It seems that all participants have sunk into oblivion – except Patton.

What did he manage to do in FNM? – when you look at them from the XXI century you can see how much the group was ahead of its time.

For one song, Patton could record many tracks, from farcical laughter to artistic screams in the third and fourth octaves. The hero of the article boasts a range of 6 ½ octaves (!) according to estimates of the portal VVN Music – first place in the top of the best vocalists. If you don’t know what that means, just find a piano. It has seven full octaves. If you poke your finger in any key – Patton will sing it, and, most likely, not in one way.

He seems to have every vocal technique. Pop singing, quasi-operatic vocals, Tuvan throat singing, growling, screaming, crooning, squeals, noises, imaginative scat singing, beatbox and so on… All of this wealth passed through a huge number of bells and whistles. At live concerts he sings at least two microphones, processes with a sampler. Patton’s influence is easily tracked in the works of System of a Down, Sepultura, Korn, Incubus and many others…

“At 21, I realized that I can do more than rock… – says Patton. – I was inspired by death metal and Frank Sinatra.”

In 25 years this man gives such a performance that the metal of the nineties bursting at the seams.

In the 90s, issued his stage manner. Performances FNM Patton behaves like a madman. Full control over voice full alleged raskoordinirovannosti movements, which is actually the coordination is in the highest sense. He does a somersault into the drummer, beats in a fit, fights with fans, drops the monitor acoustics, jumps and squats – and all this without releasing the microphone and without interrupting the party.

His frills do not affect the performance.

Every year fans post on YouTube compilations of his madness. Climb on the crane with a microphone in his teeth, without interrupting the performance of “Just a man”. Eat shoelaces from a Shoe thrown from the crowd and vomit, and then drink from the same Shoe. To get security to carry yourself on your shoulders, lots of wires and fall, willing to demonstrate on camera the genitals, to insult Anthony Kiedis and Orthodox metalhead stuck in the ‘ 90s, and infinite-infinite jest…

“Johnny Depp fucked a cow in the field – and who will be responsible for this?!”, “Slayer became not heavy, but fat”, “Kiedis has no erection”, “Axel rose, kill yourself!”. “The worst in music? It’s people. The worst thing is that people do it… the Future is in computers [from 1990].” And so on…

Tricksterism helps to free yourself, physically, mentally, musically. And it works on stage.

After leaving FNM Mike Patton founded his own label under the slogan “Ipecac Recordings: cause nausea since 1999”.

Any other singer, possessing these vocal and composing abilities, influence, discography, would record pop and successful albums in collaboration with advanced sound designers.

But Patton is not interested in mainstream. All his life he canceled the mainstream.

He’s interested in ideas.

“I walk on the escalator, for example, and I hear this rhythm. Machinery. It sounds interesting, I have to remember it, write it down…”

Since the mid-90’s Patton is worn with the idea of onomatopoeia and collaborates with avant-garde musician John Zorn. He’s moving away from FNM, doing Mr. Bungle and creates the strangest things with Zorn. Here his vocal possibilities are almost limitless; he extracts sounds from himself on the verge of madness.

Compare the screaming Banshee is only possible with the vocal gymnastics of Diamanda galas or ultralingua Dani of Filth. While most rock singers develop a heavier sound, mastering techniques close to growling, competing in brutality and becoming indistinguishable from each other – Mike goes to the “top”.

It has no purpose to sound pointlessly heavy, just to be heavy. Its extreme nature stems from the idea: it sounds unimaginable on Moonchild records, because it can’t be otherwise if you imitate saxophone and percussion. In the song “Abraxas” (both on the album and on the live) he easily, on some demonic chant, rises to a note up to the fourth octave.

The fourth octave f sharp explodes in satanic style on the experimental album Fantomas “Delirium Cordia”. In fact, it is one track with a length of 74 minutes, transmitting the language of music, what is the operation without anesthesia.

The creators of the film “I am legend”, the creatures which have been voiced by Patton, explain. It required monstrous sounds, which are still extracted from a person.

In “Six litanies for Heliogabalus” Zorn, Patton sings a Capella. On a piece of paper he draws faces, bell, patterns, mouth, and on live performances, telling an unknown story in an unknown language, he leafs through these records instead of notes.

Albums Fantomas – whether an attempt to record as the comic book of the same name sounds (the name of the track – the page number), or an attempt to convey the noise of the jungle, TV, alarm clock, animation. On the most understandable disc group “Director’s Cut” – a witty, strange, monstrous attempts to disassemble and reassemble the soundtrack of classic films. “Godfather”, “omen”, “rosemary’s Child”, “twin Peaks: Fire come with me” – Patton and the company reinterpret, distort, find the hidden inside of the title cinematic themes.

“An idea POPs into my head, – he tries to explain in an interview. – I can only convey it through music – into people’s heads.” To talk about his music becomes meaningless. Word and music are just different sign systems.

He never fawned over his fans. There seems to be no dialogue between Patton and the listener at all. The relationship is very simple: you either get high together or you’re not here.

Musically gifted brainJust as short-term learning increases the number of neurons that respond to sound, long-term learning increases the responses of nerve cells and even causes physical changes in the brain. Brain…